Day 23 Mississippi River
9/14/17 - St. Cloud, MN area
Following a long night of campfire stories and jokes a late morning was in store. I slept in until about 8 or 8:30. The forecast called for another perfect day, sunny and a high of 86.
I took off the rain fly on my tent and laid it on the ground for the rising sun to dry. A hot cup of coffee on the river bank made the perfect scene to bust out a few journal entries I had been putting off.
At 10:30 I was scheduled to video chat with my 6th grade class in Northern, Illinois. Once again, the discussion was great. I told a few stories of my recent adventures and took about 20 minutes of questions from the students. I've been working with all my classes for several weeks at this point, and somehow, none of the kids had asked the "bathroom" question. That was until today. A lot of laughs and whispering to friends when I told them about digging holes...lol!
Max, my paddling companion for the past few days, also took a slow morning. He put in about 45 minutes before I finally pushed off at 11:15AM.
I listened to a few "How I Built This" podcasts and some good tunes. A quick floating lunch and a swim helped me refuel. It's amazing how a well a cold swim on a hot day can feel. Rather than jump in and jump out I held onto the side of my boat and floated alongside it, dunking my head and arms along the way. It felt like the long dip dropped my core temperature by 20 degrees. Just what I needed.
Around 3PM or so I caught up to Max, who was having his own lunch on shore. We both agreed that a water refill in Monticello, MN would be useful.
We reached town at 5PM, pulled up to a park and grabbed empty water containers. A short walk toward the jungle gym reveled a spigot that made filling up quick. With the sun getting low on the horizon we had 6 more miles to camp.
It's easy to get caught up in the day to day routine of the river and forget that I am on the trip of a lifetime. As I moved toward camp with the setting sun behind, I tried my best not to take the moment for granted.
33 miles today. Not bad for a late start.